[Oe List ...] Celebrating a Completed Life

[Al Lingo]

Thank you, Gordon,
Charles

 

 

Al Lingo
clingojr at aol.com

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Gordon Harper <gharper1 at mindspring.com>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>; Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Thu, Sep 15, 2011 6:20 pm
Subject: [Oe List ...] Celebrating a Completed Life


            Well, damn! --
        
        Let's celebrate this completed life of one of our remarkable        colleagues as he would have wished--with joy and laughter, wild        stories and deep appreciation for a life lived on behalf of.
        
        Martin Howell died suddenly on July 22nd in Yakima, WA from an        aneurism or blood clot.  He was 64 years old.  I recently heard        about it through the grapevine and have only now been able to        confirm it and get news about how Yakima celebrated the event.
        
        Talked today with one of his close colleagues, Mary, at the        Yakima consulting firm in which Martin was a key player for many        years, having retired just a couple years ago.  From her I        learned --
          
      
that 300 people            came to the funeral, which was held in the local museum            auditorium; 
          
      
that there were            strict orders that no one was to wear black--so it looked,            according to Mary, like a beach party in Hawaii; 
          
      
that a huge screen            in the front featured a shot of Martin in the swimming pool            with a goofy expression; 
          
      
that stories poured            in from all over the world; 
          
      
and that the only            time there were tears was when his brother from New York,            who had been estranged from Martin for many years, took the            stage to share how blown away he was to learn about his            brother's life and to wish that he had known him better.
    
    Martin was for many years an ICA ToP        trainer (in his own inimitable way, as you might guess), and I        invited him to join me on half a dozen occasions to do courses        in Seattle during the '90s.  Had we asked participants to rate        our trainings on a scale of sheer fun, these would have won        hands down.  Yakima is pretty solid Republican small town rural        eastern Washington, and the fact that Martin as an openly gay        man could be so highly respected and even adored there always        seemed a marvel to many of us.  Couple that with the fact that        his partner (another ToP trainer in Yakima) in much of the        training and facilitation he did was a devout Mormon, and you        have some picture, if you didn't know him well, of how        wonderfully human and engaging Martin was.  
        
        Martin may not have kept up with many of his Order colleagues,        and the obit from the local paper doesn't even mention this part        of his life.  For those of us who knew him, however, we        celebrate the completed life of a dear colleague and friend --
        
        Gordon
        
        Obit and picture from the Yakima Herald-Republic
  
 
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